After making it halfway through music school this semester and doing everything I came to Nashville to do, I’d worked myself into the ground. I’d run out of creativity, because I’d had to expend so much energy on trying to get through the semester. I could no longer write any music, no matter how much part of me still wanted to do it.

I’ve just finished my second year of Music School in college! This year, I’ve worked harder than I ever knew I could, and I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunities that have allowed me to do so.

It’s official… I’m releasing a second piano album this summer. As promised last week, I’m revealing the title: Out of Ashes.

When I first discussed my intentions for a second album in June, I didn’t know how I could ever again make another album as good as Airborne was. I had no title, theme, or storyline for this next album, and I was at a loss as to how to move forward without a plan.

So many artists struggle with the so-called “sophomore album.” You have your whole life to make the first album, but for the second, you maybe have two years—plus, you’re burned out from making the first album. Could I ever throw myself into a second album the way I did for my first one?

I know, I know—I haven’t posted in two months. So maybe you’ve been wondering where I’ve been. Or maybe you didn’t notice. The truth is, I’ve been a lot of places, so I’ll tell you about some of them…

For the most part, I’ve been… At school, in the practice rooms.
Three hours a-day, seven days a week (in theory, anyway). Music school is extremely demanding and exhausting, but in all of that time at the piano, I’ve come up with some amazing pieces that I’m looking forward to sharing on the next album. I’m going to dare to say that my second album will be better than the first. (I’ll tell you more about this album in next week’s post.) Continue reading “Where I’ve Been”→

When you think about Christmas break in college, you might imagine sleeping in, spending time with family and old friends, and just doing nothing. While it’s true that I did do all of the above a little bit, for me, going home is always a time for recording and composition.

My new solo piano single “Lirio” has just been featured on The Piano Cloud’s final Editor’s Choice of 2014! I have been part of this online community for almost two years and am so grateful for all the support I’ve received… 2014 was quite a crazy year, but I’m glad to be finishing it off with a bang.

In the last few months, much has happened that has made clear to me that I need to focus on being a composer. I can’t only do engineering. I’m certainly still recording, producing, and spending plenty of time in the studio (and plan to keep doing so because I still love it and need to record my compositions), but I’ve realized that, first and foremost, I’m a composer.

In the wake of an exhausting freshman year, unfortunately, until a few weeks ago, I had been struggling tremendously to compose anything at all. It wasn’t that I didn’t try—I tried harder than I knew I could. But the music wouldn’t come. I hated almost everything I did manage to write. On some level, I even began to hate composing itself because it took so much effort to even write things I didn’t like.

I’m excited to say that I have just been brought on as a composer by the production music library Musinc! From now on, anything I write and record, once accepted into the library, will be available for licensing for film, TV, and other media. The material from Airborne is already in the catalog. There will also be opportunities for filmmakers and music supervisors to commission me to write custom pieces.

“Music students: as the semester grinds on you may feel intensely burnt-out. You may even consider dropping out of music altogether. If that happens, go back and listen to your favorite recordings, make music with your friends, do anything you can to remind yourself why you loved music before you started studying it. An education in music can be a very good thing, but it can also squeeze the life out of any love you ever had for it. Don’t let it.”

Recently, I came across this quote by Eric Whitacre from his blog, via Facebook. The timing couldn’t have been better.